Finally, some much needed layout work

Finally got to a good stopping point on work bench projects and turned my focus to the layout.  I'm working mainly on the structures on the Parker area and have turn my attention to the St. Just area just across the aisle also.  Parker is a on the lower level where the passing siding ends/begins.  It's a very rural area and I wanted to keep it that way.  Somehow a huge industry, the OSB plant worked it way in the area.  But it's a perfect industry for this rural area.  I finally painted the main plant building but still have a long way to go with the plant.  The highlight of the Parker area will be the small depot there.  It's 98% done and looks perfect for the area.  I also started to cut foam for the land forms for the area.  These will mainly support trees that will help hide the hole in the wall that leads to the helix/staging.

Foam in place to hold trees that will block the hole in the wall and hide the continuous run track.

St. Just on the the other side of the isle will have it's industry on this bluff.  I will add a retaining wall and an elevator to haul up fertilizer from the tracks.

The OSB plant an it's new paint.  It will be a huge plant when complete.  

The Parker depot looks right at home.  Once the foam has trees, it will be hard to see the hole in the corner.  This will be a very photogenic area.  

Finally time for a September post

Can't believe this is my first post this month but it's been busy.  I've been back to work for the last 3 weeks and the boys are in full swing in fall baseball.  Seems like I need to make some short bursts of modeling if I'm gonna get it in.  I did surprise myself and got some layout work in on the first week of school.  This is on the lower level in St. Just.  Not sure exactly what I have planned for it.

Yes those wires are organized!

Fascia installed

A backdrop and trees will block the view in the hidden trackage.

Spring break is over?

Well it is and I went back to work today after a week off.  I did get a few things done, model railroad related.  Redoing floors took up most of the break and I didn't even complete it.  I replaced some old Atlas Selectors on my control panel with toggle switches.  This will free up some much needed space for a rural scene in St. Just on the lower level.

An original part of the layout for all the powered switches in the Fredericksburg industrial area.  I'll add the blocks to this by way of toggle switches.  

This piece to the right of the control panel will be removed.  The layout is separated by blocks from when it was DC powered at one time.  I left it like that to help find shorts and to cut off track power if not needed.   

This triangle area across from CVS will be some farm fields and a old barn/house.  I will use trees to hide the tracks leading off to the left.

Toggles are installed and some still need to be labeled.  Easier to figure out what toggle controls what.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and just think Christmas is less than a month away!  Started a project last weekend to widen an area on the lower level.  I also did a minor track change is the same area to length a siding.  The main reason I widen the area is to be able to put in trees to block the hole to the helix.  Look for a video later on today on this topic.

Added bench work wood extensions to hold the foam.  These are large so I can screw the fasia in.  

Here's the foam laying in position.

A track side pic.

The overall scene.

Another busy week coming up and a major upgrade to the layout room!

Looking at this coming week, modeling is going to take a back seat.  It seems that I have something to do every night this week.  Between 2 football games, 2 little league ball games and practices, free time will be nonexistent.  I hoped to get back into the modeling grind this week, but this past week was also busy.  Guess I will have to get modeling in in small increments!  I have no major projects for the Midland for this winter, but I will start to figure out where scenery will begin on the lower level.  St. Just is a good starting point and I may do a tweek in the trackage there to hide the helix hole.  This will extend the run-around track and I will widen the area right above my desk.  This will give me a chance to add trees to block the "hole in the wall".

I also purchased some laminate flooring for the layout room.  The carpet in the office has ran it's course so it needs to go.  This is the same flooring my wife and I installed in our family/TV room this summer.  It holds up well and is scratch resistant.  It should not take too longer to install but the hard part will be putting it under the layout legs. I may remove them or jack them up a bit.  It should look and do well in the layout room as long as I don't have any more leaks.

Here's the hole to the garage and the helix.  No easy way to hide it from view.  The plan is to widen this area and put some trees in the foreground to hopefully hide it.

I may remove this curved turnout and extend the runaround track to the right, making it bigger.

Mainline on the right, Mine run branch on the left.  Putting the turnout down here would make this runaround track more worth while.

There is the propane turnout in the same area but this will stay in the same area.

This Traffic Master laminate flooring has done great in our family room.  I chose a lighter color for the layout room so it will match our foyer flooring.

Chesapeake Valley Sweeteners is getting close

This week has been a fun week for me, modeling wise.  CVS has been a fun build but a time consuming build.  I've got to the point to where I'm going to call it done.  Needs a base and some other details.  Did the weathering yesterday with alcohol washes and some powders.  I'm ready to put some scenery down to complete the St. Just Junction.

Really happy with the brick mortar and how the office turned out.  Need a sidewalk and some bushes!

Just a general wash of grime for the building.  Added a picture of a warehouse for the inside of the unloading shed.

The rest of the building.

Trying out a hopper for the unloading shed.

Chesapeake Valley SWEETENERS has finally settled on a name and is nearing completion

Lots of tedious work this week on the facility and the name has changed again.  Decided to settle on Chesapeake Valley Sweeteners based on another "sweetener" plant in upstate NY.  Sweeteners Plus is located in Lakeville, NY and the website has some good shots of the facility.  Most of my buildings are scratchbuilt and when you have a small railroad like me, you have to fit them in the space you have.  I also heard from someone in the MR business that you layout should not look like the Walthers catalog.  Walthers does make some great kits but do some kitbashing for a truely unique structure.

Yep, my work desk is a mess and this is a good size structure.

Painting on the front porch.  My layout is as soon as you walk into the front door so this is convenient.  That's not one of my good chairs!  Settled on this yellow.

Looks good under the lights.  The downspouts will hide the seams.  It will hold 3 tank cars.

The facility as of yesterday.

Today consisted of adding and gluing the roof on and adding doors and windows.

The white roof looks good and I wanted a flat roof on the left to add blowers and such.  Might go with the white flat roof instead.  

Close up of the office.  I still have to add a small awning in the office.  Might do something else.  

The roof of the loading building is huge.  All Pikestuff materials.  

These wood strips will help hold the roof of the loading barn,

Fascia, Fascia Fascia

Wow, am I tired of cutting, painting and installing fascia.  It seems it is all I have done since the last blog update.  My original fascia color I went with was a bright green, like the one on the Midland locos.  I did that on a whim.  When doing the new fascia on the extension, I went with black, a more neutral color.  You want the focus of your railroad to be on the layout not the fascia.  So I had to remove all the painted fascia and paint it black.  This sounds easy but I also moved DCC plugins to the lower level.  So that meant new fascia. I also did some sky blue background painting.

I'm also looking to move toward wireless NCE controllers.  I would mail my controllers to NCE and they would install the wireless capabilities.  I would need to buy an antenna and that would be it.  It costs $97 and would be a turnaround of 2-3 weeks.  I would have to send my Power Cab first since this is main controller.  That means I would not be able to use the layout for 2-3 weeks :-(
I'll probable do it later on this month.  If any subscribers have wireless NCE, email me or comment below the pros and cons. Until next time!

Here's the entrance to my layout room.  New black fascia for the extension and lower level.

Here's my switch panel for the 3 switches in Orange/  Need to put in the track arrangement so I'll know what button is what.  

Here is Orange ready for scenery and buildings.  The blue wall on the right is removable in case I need to access this area.  Will need to for scenery!  

Here is Orange looking toward the untreated tie loading area.

To the left in Orange is the interchange tracks.  

On the upper level, a bridge with a road coming down to the tracks will highlight this area. 

Across the room, I added some paint to the backdrop.  I've decided to put in corn syrup unloading facility in the spur where the tanks are spotted.  This area is called St. Just (based on a real town on this former line) where the Mine Run branch starts.  

A little bit of traffic at St. Just.  Ex-KCS power is doing some testing on the Orange line.  

Here's one of the NCE plugins I moved from the upper level.  St. Just also has a switch panel for the 4 switches here.

The upper level extension looks like its ready for it's scenery.  I'm ready for some too since this fascia has been kicking my butt!